Payout News Fails to Lift Small-Caps

A half-dozen members of the benchmark Russell 2000 raise their distributions, giving shareholders higher yields but little comfort in price gains after the week's rout.

By

Alexandra Scaggs

April 6, 2013

By

Alexandra Scaggs

April 6, 2013

Small stocks came under pressure last week, underperforming their larger brethren amid worries about economic growth. But along with their lagging performance, a healthy handful of small-cap companies have made their cash payouts more enticing.

The Russell 2000 Index, the go-to benchmark for tracking small-capitalization stocks, hit its record high two weeks to the day before the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index; it peaked on March 14 at 953.07. But as larger stocks continue to grind higher, the Russell has fallen...